Lost Soul
by Sword On Fire
Summary: Kaoru is sent back in time from 2007 by a freak lightning storm. Trapped in 1887, she has no choice but to make a life for herself. Rated PG just to be on the safe side.
1. Meetings

**2007**

Kaoru had always hated storms. The only thing she disliked more was driving during one. The facts that it was at night and she was lost only made it worse.

She had been out visiting her grandparents, who owned a small farm outside of Tokyo. On her way home, the storm had come out of nowhere, distracting her into missing her exit on the highway. The rain came down in sheets, making it impossible to see more than about ten yards, and the thunder drowned out even her own thoughts. Kaoru was just about to pull over and get out her maps when a bolt of lightning struck a tree next to the road, causing it to burst instantly into flame. Cursing, she swerved out of the way and kept going.  
'_Maybe I'll find a rest stop somewhere up the road,_' she thought hopefully.

**1887**

Kenshin, huddled under a bush by the side of the road, shivered and pushed his dripping bangs out of his eyes. He had started running when the storm hit, hoping to find some sort of shelter before it got too bad. But he was still four days' walking distance outside of Tokyo, and the area was fairly deserted. The bush was the best he could do, but he would have been glad for a fire, which the sheets of rain prevented.

Suddenly, lightning struck a tree next to the bush, and Kenshin leaped out of the way to avoid a burning branch. Sighing, he decided to keep going.  
'_At least walking will help me stay a bit warmer,_' he thought as he shouldered his now-soaked bundle once more.

**2007**

Kaoru was scared. She had no idea where she was, there had been no rest stops or signs for miles, and – she really hoped it was her imagination – the lightning seemed to be striking closer and closer to her every time.  
Also, she was beginning to see things that weren't there: a cottage built in a style that hadn't been used for centuries, stone markers by the side of the road, slight differences in the curves of the highway …

She shook her head and bit down hard on her lower lip, trying to focus before she crashed the car.  
The three consecutive bolts of lightning that hit the road directly in front of her, however, had no such qualms.

Kaoru screamed and threw up her hands to shield her face as the overwhelming heat melted the windshield right in front of her. Choking on the thick, black smoke from the burning rubber of her wasted tires, she was blind to the world shattering and re-forming around her car. But when her back tires, still spinning, propelled her off the suddenly dirt road and into the woods that were now much thicker than they had been, she opened her eyes, screamed again, and slammed on the brakes.  
A huge, ancient pine tree arrested her forward progress with a crunch of metal and the soft _woomph_ of the airbags. Kaoru sat with her head resting against the white-covered steering wheel, listening to the rain fall on the car roof as everything slowly faded to black.

**1887**

Kenshin was getting worried. It wasn't because he was cold and wet and hungry, it wasn't because every so often he almost lost his footing in a puddle every so often, and it wasn't because he was soaked to the skin and shivering. No, it was because -- he thought -- his mind was playing tricks on him.  
Out of the corner of his eye, Kenshin was beginning to see things, strange things that were not really there. Things like great big carriages of metal that had no horses, zooming past him at impossible speeds sometimes startled him off the road.

But the strangest thing of all was the three consecutive lightning strikes a few yards away from him, close to a bend in the road. Suddenly, there was a loud bang as another large, metal carriage appeared on the road. Screams of horror rent the air, and an other-worldly roar, followed by an inhuman screeching as the thing careened off the road and collided with a large old pine tree.

Kenshin blinked. Once, twice, and a third time as he tried to piece together what had just happened. Finally, it kicked in that someone had been screaming in terror a moment ago, and he ran to the site of the crash.  
There was a girl in the front. Her head rested against a large wheel in front of her, which was covered in some sort of white fabric. She seemed to be uninjured, but he couldn't see very much through the glass. He rapped on it with the back of his knuckles, hoping she'd wake up. And, after a few minutes, she did. Bleary blue eyes blinked at him as she brushed a few sable strands out of her face.

She put her hand on the wall below the window, and Kenshin stepped back as a section of the wall swung outward. With a click and a soft hissing, the grey straps that had crossed her torso and waist released and retracted into the wall. Twisting, she slid off the seat until her feet touched the forest floor. But when she tried to stand up, her knees buckled. Kenshin caught her before she could fall very far, cupping her elbows in both hands.

"_Daijobu ka?_" he asked, noting the many small lacerations on her forearms. She nodded, blinking a few times. "Did you hit your head?" he asked insistently, trying to peer under her bangs for any bumps or bruises.

"No, I'm fine, akage-san," she finally said, gently but firmly removing his hands from her person. "I just blacked out when my car crashed. Can you tell me where we are?"

'_"Akage-san"?_' Kenshin wondered as she turned to survey the damage. He gave a mental shrug, then set about sizing up this girl. She was pretty enough, he supposed: long black hair, bright blue eyes, and a slim physique that was shown off to no small advantage by her … well, Kenshin could only assume they were Western clothes. She moved, despite her shakiness, with a grace that Kenshin guessed to be born of dance – until she pulled a bokken out of the car.

"You practice _kenjutsu_?" Kenshin asked, surprised. The girl nodded. "Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu," she answered. "My great-great grandfather, Kamiya Koshijirou, started it at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration." Kenshin blinked in surprise.

"_Sumimasen_, Kamiya-dono, but sessha doesn't think that is possible," he said. The girl turned to look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Kenshin held up his empty hands placatingly. "Sessha isn't refuting your claim to a family style," he began, "but think about it. If your great-great grandfather started it only eleven years ago –"

"Eleven years ago?" she interrupted. "_Iyé,_ I said at the beginning of the Meiji Era!" Kenshin blinked at her again. "The Meiji Era started eleven years ago, Kamiya-dono."

"_Nani??_ No! You're joking, right?" she exclaimed. Kenshin shook his head slowly. "Sessha does not jest, Kamiya-dono." He was a bit shocked when her knees gave out again and she sat down hard on the wet loam.

"Eighteen eighty-seven," he heard her mutter. "That'd be, what, some one hundred and twenty years?" Kenshin's mind raced as he ran through the mental math. "Oro!" he exclaimed. "Two thousand and seven?"

"_Aa,_" The girl on the ground answered. "That's when I'm from." She sighed. "But I don't know what I'm going to do now! I have no idea how I got here, and so no idea how to get home!" She sounded as though she was going to burst into tears. On impulse, Kenshin crouched beside her and gently put his hand on her shoulder.

"What's your name?" he asked softly.

"Kamiya Kaoru," she answered, sniffing. "Well, Kaoru-dono, would you mind accompanying sessha into Tokyo? There you may find a job and lodging until you find a way to return home." Kaoru nodded thoughtfully. "How far are we from Tokyo?" she asked, standing up.

"About four days' walk," Kenshin answered as he followed suit.

"Too bad my car's trashed …" Kaoru said mournfully. "We could've made it there in a quarter of the time!"

"_Honto?_" Kenshin asked as she opened the door behind the one she had first stumbled out of. "Yeah," Kaoru answered. "Too bad they won't be invented for another twenty or thirty years … and available here for another forty … and there's the little fact that they pollute the atmosphere like crazy …" she trailed off as she bent over to get something off the floor, and Kenshin found himself looking in the other direction to avoid staring at her derrière.

"Alright, let's go!" Kaoru said enthusiastically as she donned backpack and raincoat. Kenshin found himself smiling as they set out back towards the road, following the trail her car had carved through the woods.

* * *

Translations  
_Daijobu ka?:_ Are you all right?  
_akage-san_: mister redhead  
_bokken_: wooden practice sword  
_Sumimasen_: I'm sorry  
_sessha_: "this unworthy one"  
_Iyé_: no  
_Nani_: what  
_Aa_: yes (informal)  
_Honto_: really


	2. Traveling

They didn't go anywhere that first night. As soon as they got out onto the road, the storm picked up again. The wind and rain drove them back to Kaoru's car, where they spent the night. With the windshield gone, it wasn't as warm as it could have been, but it was still better than nothing. Morning came and found them on the back seat: Kaoru with her back to the front seats, Kenshin squeezed up against the backrest, both turned in towards each other, faces almost touching.

Kenshin woke up first, feeling better rested than he had in months. A bit surprised, he propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at the girl in his arms. Kaoru, still sound asleep, muttered a little and, to Kenshin's profound embarrassment, lifted her leg so that her knee rested on his thigh.

_'Oro …'_ Kenshin thought, blushing a little, _'I'd best wake her up soon …'_ Clearing his throat, he gently shook her shoulder. "Kaoru-dono," he called softly when she did not immediately wake. "Kaoru-dono …" He shook her shoulder again, and was rewarded with the sight of her sleepy blue eyes blinking at him. "_Ohayou,_" he said as she yawned.

"_Ohayou,_" she returned, moving to sit up. Instead, she slipped off the seat and fell the short distance to the floor, landing with a muffled thud. "Oro! _Daijobu ka_, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked, startled. Kaoru waved off his concern. "_Hai, hai, daijobu yo_." She opened the door, crawled out, and began to stretch. Kenshin got out the other side to avoid watching her, and wandered off a little ways into the woods. When he had finished with his morning ablutions, he came back to find Kaoru bent over one of the front seats, muttering to herself.

"_Anou,_ Kaoru-dono?" he asked hesitantly, trying to peer past her into the gloom of the car. "What are you doing?"

"Ah-ha!" Kaoru made to triumphantly stand up, but promptly whacked her head on the car ceiling and dropped the tin she'd been holding. "_Itai …_" Kenshin opened his mouth to ask if she was all right but she beat him to it: "I'm fine, thank you! I hurt my pride more than my head." Shrugging, Kenshin picked up the tin from where it had fallen and shook it carefully. There was a faint rattling sound and some crinkling. "What's in here?" he asked. Kaoru stopped rubbing her head to take the tin from him and open it.

"It's my emergency stash," she answered. "Some crackers, chocolate, dried fruit …" She popped a dried apricot into her mouth and offered him the tin. "Want some?" Kenshin took a slice of dried orange. "_Arigatou._" Kaoru put the tin back in her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and they started out.

They made good time that day, getting to a small village before nightfall. The town was so tiny that it had no inn, but the owner of the local restaurant was very friendly.

"Sure," he said, "I'll let you sleep in the back room, in return for a favor."

"Ask away, Sozou-san," Kenshin said. "We will be happy to do anything you wish." Kaoru tapped her foot with his ankle as he said it, but she nodded nevertheless. "Well, the kitchen boy ran away a few days ago, and my other waitress is sick," Sozou said. "So if you two help out tonight and tomorrow until lunch, you can sleep in the back room and we'll send some food along with you."

"_Domo arigatou,_ Sozou-san!" Kaoru said, bowing. The restaurant owner laughed at her enthusiasm. "Come on in, and I'll show you around." After a few humorous incidents in the kitchen, it was decided that Kaoru would wait tables. The other waitress, Ine, was glad to have help, but where was Kaoru's kimono? Kaoru pulled one out of her backpack that looked very much like Ine's, and with an apron over it they were nearly identical. Back in the kitchen, Kenshin peeled and chopped vegetables for the cook.

Even with the delay, they still walked a good ways in the afternoon. Late February was cold and damp, so although they had the campfire going strong that night, they still slept close for warmth. This closeness to Kaoru, though welcome, came with a price. For all that he enjoyed it, Kenshin was all too reminded of the last time he'd held a warm, breathing body as he slept …  
The first time, he managed to keep from waking Kaoru. The second time, the nightmare did not cooperate with his desires, and she woke as he did.

"_Iyé!_" he shouted as he sat up, flicking open the sakabatou, ready to _battoujutsu_ his unseen enemy into separate halves --

"Rurouni-san?" Kaoru asked, sitting up as well. "What's the matter?" Kenshin, panting harshly, looked at her. Her pale kimono was painted gold in the light of the glowing embers, her face shadowed by the ebony curtain of her hair. He took a few deep breaths and offered her a half-hearted smile. "_Nan demo nai_, Kaoru-dono," he said after a moment. "Just a nightmare, that it was." He couldn't see the look she gave him, but he could sense the suspicion in her ki. "Go back to sleep," he suggested. "We still have a ways to walk tomorrow, that we do." Sighing, she lay down again, and after a few minutes, he did the same. As he felt her curl around him, Kenshin wondered: _'How long can I resist this temptation? Surely, we cannot reach Tokyo fast enough.'_

On the third day, the pair was attacked by bandits. They were ambushed shortly after lunch, shortly after Kenshin had informed Kaoru of his suspicions that they were being watched. Though all carried swords, they were none of them a challenge. Even Kaoru, hampered by her kimono and armed only with a bokken, took out two on her own.

"Just what rank do you claim in your style, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked as they tied up the groaning men. Kaoru flashed a small, shy smile at him, and Kenshin was surprised to note that it was the first he had seen from her. "_Shihandai,_" she said, tugging to make sure the knot was secure. Standing up, she brushed off her kimono.

"What about you?" she asked. Kenshin gave her his very best empty-headed-rurouni smile. "Sessha was but a student, _de gozaru yo,_" he answered. Kaoru quirked an eyebrow at him, then shook her head and looked away. They continued walking until, a little while later, they reached a town large enough to have both an inn and a police station. They split up; Kaoru heading for the police station to report the bandits, and while Kenshin walked over to the inn. It took a bit of persuading, but by the time Kaoru came to join him, he had gotten them jobs that would earn them beds, baths, and a hot meal.

They worked hard and long. Kenshin was put to chopping vegetables and wood in the kitchen, then later bringing in water with which to wash the dishes. Kaoru carried trays of food from the kitchen to the dining room and individual rooms, grumbling darkly all the while. But she relaxed a bit over the meal they shared with the other servants, and even more when she went with the other women to the bath.

The next day, the fourth day, they got an early start. Kenshin and a yawning Kaoru waved good-bye to the servants while the sun slowly hoisted itself over the horizon. They passed through town after town, each a little bigger than the last, throughout the day. But even with those few extra hours and the steady pace they kept, it was still after sunset when they reached Tokyo.

* * *

Translations  
_ohayou_: good morning  
_daijobu ka?_: are you all right?  
_hai_: yes (formal)  
_daijobu yo_: I'm all right.  
_anou_: um, er  
_itai_: ouch, ow  
_(domo) arigatou_: thank you (very much)  
_iyé_: no  
_battoujutsu_: Kenshin's technique of drawing the sword and slicing at the same time  
_nan demo nai_: it's nothing  
_shihandai_: assisstant master  
_sessha_: "this unworthy one"


	3. Hitokiri Battousai

**Disclaimer:** In this chapter, I use dialogue and text taken directly from volume one of the _Rurouni Kenshin_ manga. This is intentional, as my story is a different version of the one that belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump, and Viz Media, _not_ me.

* * *

Night had fallen when Kenshin and Kaoru reached Tokyo.

"We should split up," Kaoru suggested. "That way, we'll be able to find an inn with work faster."

"Good idea," Kenshin agreed, nodding. "Where shall we meet, and when?"

"Let's say …" Kaoru bit her lip as she thought, "on the bridge by moonrise?"

"Sessha will go west," Kenshin said. "Would you mind taking the north, Kaoru-dono?"

"Not at all, rurouni-san," she answered, and took the next street leading north.

Kenshin was very glad that he had gone along with Kaoru's idea when a man's voice called out to him: "Hitokiri Battousai!"  
Time seemed to stop for about three heartbeats. Then Kenshin took a breath, pasted his best "totally clueless" look on his face, and turned around.

A man dressed in kendo gear stood at the other end of the street, holding a bokken with the confidence of a master swordsman. "For two months, you have murdered at will," he said, low and dangerous. "Now it ends!"

"Oro?" was all Kenshin could manage. It seemed to enrage the man, who charged. "Don't play the fool!" he shouted as he ran. "Who else would defy the law and carry a sword in this night?!" At the exact moment he swung, Kenshin leapt out of the way –  
And hit a fence on the side of the road, sliding down to sit on a discarded bucket, which promptly gave way under his weight. His attacker asked incredulously, "_This_ is the hitokiri Battousai?"

"Nope," Kenshin said as he put a hand to his bruised cranium. "This one is but a rurouni, a traveling swordsman with no destination. After just arriving in town, how can a murder be my fault?"

"Then how do you explain that sword, rurouni-san?" the swordsman asked, cool as the night air. "Under the sword-banning act, no-one's allowed to carry a blade." Silently meeting his gaze, Kenshin slid the sheathed sword from his obi and offered the hilt to the other man. He grasped the hilt and unsheathed the blade with a slight inclination of his head, properly acknowledging the courtesy.

"A _sakabatou_?" he murmured, testing the balance and holding it up to the faint illumination offered by a lantern hung in someone's yard. "How many people could one kill with this?" Kenshin asked as he eased himself to his feet. "Not many," the other man answered. He held out the reverse-bladed sword to Kenshin with a bow. "_Gomen nasai,_ rurouni-san," he said once Kenshin had put away the blade. "I am afraid I mistook you for someone else."

"_Maa, maa,_" Kenshin said soothingly, "no harm was done to sessha."

"But if I may ask," the man began, "why carry a sword you cannot use?" Kenshin was trying to line up a polite not-answer to this when a high-pitched noise cut through the quiet. "A police whistle!" the man exclaimed. "I must go. Perhaps another time!" he called over his shoulder as he ran.

Kenshin watched him as the swordsman ran north. '_It seems there's something interesting to check out here,_" he thought to himself, then froze in horror.  
'_North,_' he thought as his blood ran cold. '_And he spoke of a murderer …_'

'_Kaoru!_'  
**  
O – o – O **

A little ways away, Kaoru was arguing with the owner of an inn when she, too, heard the police whistles. The angry man slammed the door on her when she looked away to try and gauge where the noise was coming from. '_North and a little bit east, I think,_' she pondered as she walked towards the sounds of a skirmish. Two blocks later, she found the source of the noises.

A giant of a man was facing down a full squad of uniformed police officers. Kaoru judged him to be at least a meter and a half tall, with a katana to match. It dripped blood onto the street as he shouted: "Weak! Weak, weak, WEAK!! You are all too WEAK!" he continued as another man fell to his blade.

"So strong," a dazed officer standing near the street mouth murmured, "he must be the legendary Battousai!" Kaoru, thankful she'd kept her 21st century leggings on, loosened her kimono, picked up her bokken, and was about to jump into the fray –  
But froze when she saw someone across the square, someone very familiar to her. "_Kazoku?_" she whispered as a man in kendo gear shouted, "This is it, Battousai!"

Time seemed to stretch and bend around the scene as the man charged the giant, every inch of his stance screaming Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. Kaoru watched in horror as the giant took a blow to the back, then turned and caught the man in a backhand that threw him against a nearby building. "Father, NO!" she screamed, leaping to attack Battousai.

His sword came down with blurring speed even as she scored a hit on his shoulder. She slid into a nearby wall, only then noticing that her right shoulder was bleeding. But there was no time to think about that, because the giant was bearing down on her, sword raised for a killing strike.

Just before the final moment, strong arms scooped her up and a familiar scent assailed her nostrils: the rurouni had come to her rescue. She was just about to thank him when there was an awful _crunch_ and their forward momentum just _stopped_. Even keeping a hold on her bokken, Kaoru managed not to roll on her wounded arm. "What –" she began, turning towards the rurouni, who was huddled on the ground, rocking slightly in pain. "Dislocated groin," came the strained answer. "Dislocated brain!" she snapped back.

"Feh!" the giant derided them. "I am Himura Battousai!" he announced, to the consternation of the police. "Master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu! People call me Hitokiri Battousai!"

"Stop!" both Kaoru and the other swordsman yelled at once as the giant ran off. The swordsman barely made it to his feet, but Kaoru had gotten one foot in the air before Kenshin grabbed her ponytail. "_You_ stop," was all he got out before Kaoru whipped around and clobbered him with her bokken.

"Running while wounded can be deadly," he continued despite the pain in his head, and thinking that if she could still hit him that hard, she couldn't be _that_ wounded. "Now that he's told us his sword-fighting style, we don't have to be so –"

"Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is my style!" Kaoru yelled, whacking him again. "He murders in my family's name!"

"Kaoru?" The hoarse, shaky whisper had them both turning to see the swordsman from earlier approaching, leaning heavily on his bokken. "_Musume_, is that you?"

Kaoru bowed her head. "I am sorry, sir," she said sadly. "You must have me mistaken for someone else."

"You look so much like her ..." the man murmured, then turned to Kenshin. "Rurouni-san, you know this young woman?" Kenshin nodded. "I would like to invite you both back to my home for the night, if you have nowhere else to stay," he said. "But we must go quickly, before the police decide we are worth questioning."

"_Domo arigatou_, Kamiya-san," Kaoru said, bowing. "I think we will indeed take you up on that. If I may just fetch my bag from where I dropped it, we can be on our way." Kamiya-san nodded, and Kaoru darted over to the street where she had dropped her backpack.

"A very interesting girl, that one," Kamiya-san remarked. "There are not many women -- or even men -- who would jump into a swordfight against an opponent of that size." Kenshin was about to reply when Kaoru rejoined them. "All ready?" Kamiya-san asked. Kaoru nodded. "_Hai._"

"Then let us be off." And with that, Kamiya-san led them in the direction of his home.

* * *

**Translations**

_hitokiri_: man-slayer, assassin_  
Battousai_: master of lethal sword-drawing  
_sakabatou_: a reverse-bladed sword  
_Gomen nasai_: forgive me, I'm sorry  
_maa, maa_: it's okay, easy there  
_sessha_: "this unworthy one"  
_bokken_: wooden practice sword  
_kazoku_: (one's own) father  
_musume_: (one's own) daughter  
_Domo arigatou_: thank you very much  
_hai_: yes (formal)


	4. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu

**Disclaimer:** In this chapter, I have used text taken directly from volume 1 of the _Rurouni Kenshin_ manga. This is only because my story and the original follow very similar lines. I do not lay any claim to the setting or characters, who belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump, and Viz Media – not me. I also do not own the stories of Mulan, _Monstrous Regiment_, the In the Hand of the Goddess quartet, etc.

* * *

"My name is Kamiya Koshijirou," the man said as they walked down the darkened streets of Tokyo. "Since the collapse of the Bafuku, I have spent many years developing a sword style known as _katsujin-ken_, the swords that give life, to suit this new age of peace." He sighed as he unlocked the big wooden gates and ushered them inside. "We were a small dojo, but we had ten good students working hard together. Six months ago, I was drafted for the Seinan War. When my daughter, Kaoru, heard, she disguised herself as a boy and went in my place."

"I'm so sorry, Kamiya-san," Kaoru said as Koshijirou puttered around the kitchen, putting water for tea on to boil and getting out cups.

"Please, sit," he said, motioning towards the table. They did so, and Koshijirou continued to speak. "I wanted to go after her, but I could not. I never heard from her again …" He stared blankly out into space. Kaoru looked down at her hands. Kenshin studied the room, which was, though bare, in good repair and fairly clean. The pot of water on the fire was just beginning to boil when Koshijirou spoke again.

"Then, two months ago, that murderer appeared … And now it's like this. One by one, the students left, fearing the name 'Battousai'. The townspeople don't dare come near."

"Even now, in the Meiji era, the name 'Hitokiri Battousai' strikes fear," Kenshin murmured. Koshijirou nodded. "Why he uses the name Kamiya Kasshin Ryu," the older swordsman continued, "and if he really is Battousai, I have no idea. But we have to stop his killing spree as soon as we can." He got up to pour tea, and Kenshin noticed that he limped a little.

Apparently, so did Kaoru. "Kamiya-san," she said, "were you hurt in the fight?" Koshijirou looked down at his leg. "Oh, no," he said. "This is an old wound, from the Bakumatsu." He brought a tray of cups over to the table. But when Kaoru reached out to take hers with her right hand, she recoiled quickly with a gasp of pain.

"Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked in surprise, then blushed bright red as the shihandai in question yanked down the right shoulder of her kimono, exposing an odd, tight-fitting garment and a bleeding slice in her bicep. "Oro!" exclaimed Kenshin. "That looks nasty!" Kaoru looked at it with an expression of vague interest. "I didn't even notice it during the fight," she said faintly. "I'll go get the bandages," said Koshijirou, limping down the hallway towards the dojo.

"So, how is it to meet your great-great grandfather, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked once Koshijirou had disappeared. "It's really strange," she said after a moment of thought. "Not just meeting Koshijirou-san, but being here, and seeing all the differences …" She trailed off just as Koshijirou reentered. He knelt by Kaoru's injured side and dabbed at the cut with a cloth dipped in some sort of antiseptic. When the wound was clean, he wrapped her upper arm in a cloth bandage.

"_Arigatou_, Kamiya-san," Kaoru said softly as he tied off the bandage. "Anything for my daughter," Koshijirou said, smiling. "How did you return from the Seinan War without any wounds?" he asked. Kaoru closed her eyes and muttered something that Kenshin couldn't quite catch.

"Koshijirou-san, I am not your daughter," she stated firmly.

"But I saw you fight using Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, your name is Kaoru –"

"Daughter of Ame, daughter-in-law of Hikari, daughter-in-law of Kaoru!"

The resulting silence was so loud, Kenshin could hear his ears ringing. Kaoru was breathing hard but silently, fists clenched and trembling with the effort of, Kenshin suspected, holding back tears. Koshijirou looked as though he had seen a ghost. Kenshin dared not move a muscle, deathly afraid of reintroducing his forgotten presence and shattering this delicate but vital moment.

"My great-great granddaughter?" Koshijirou breathed, disbelieving. Kaoru nodded silently. "_Dono yo ni_ …"

"I don't know," Kaoru said tonelessly. "There was a storm … The lightning struck three times, and I was crashed into a tree, one hundred and twenty years in the past, with rurouni-san helping me out and asking if I was hurt." Kenshin, heart aching, summoned up his courage and rested a gentle hand lightly on Kaoru's still-shaking fist. Through her thick curtain of ebony hair, he saw her close her eyes and take a deep breath.

"Well," Koshijirou said after a long moment, "_musume_ or _mago-musume_, it matters not. You are of my blood, you are here, and you are welcome to make this dojo your home for as long as you wish." He held out his arms, and Kaoru looked up. "Come here," he invited, and Kaoru flung herself into his embrace and burst into tears.

As Koshijirou soothed the sobbing girl, Kenshin silently rose and began to move unobtrusively towards the door.

"Rurouni-san." Koshijirou's quiet voice stopped him in his tracks. "I would thank you for bringing my child safely to Tokyo."

"No thanks are needed, Koshijirou-san," Kenshin replied without turning around. "Sessha merely behaved as any gentleman would."

"Even so, my offer of a place to stay extends to you as well," the older man countered. "I am sure Kaoru-chan would not mind if you stayed," he added with a slight smile as the young woman in question raised her head and dried her eyes on her kimono. "Please stay, rurouni-san," Kaoru entreated. Kenshin felt his resolve weakening as she gazed at him pleadingly with those big blue eyes, still wet with tears. He sighed and nodded.

"Sessha will stay," he acquiesced. "But only until this affair with the one who calls himself 'Hitokiri Battousai' is finished."

* * *

**Translations**  
_katsujin-ken_: swords that give life  
_shihandai_: assistant master  
_dono yo ni_: how  
_musume_: (one's own) daughter  
_mago-musume_: (one's own) granddaughter


End file.
